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Ashley Judd (born April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her leading roles in a series of late 1990s and early 2000s thrillers, including Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy and High Crimes. Described by her own mother as "an intellectual pin-up", Ashley Judd portrayed a wide array of characters onscreen that possessed a fierce determination, coupled with an alluring sensuality. Whether she was playing a Southerner starting over in her breakthrough role in "Ruby in Paradise" (1993), to a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe in "Norma Jean & Marilyn" (HBO, 1996), or a kidnap victim who manages to elude her captor in "Kiss the Girls"(1997), this actress delivered strong, beautiful, delicate and forthright performances that impressed critics and audiences alike. Judd was born Ashley Tyler Ciminella in Granada Hills, California, the daughter of Naomi Judd, a well-known country music singer and motivational speaker, and Michael Ciminella, Jr., a marketing analyst for the horseracing industry. Judd's father is of Italian descent. Judd has a half-sister, Wynonna Judd, who is also a country music singer. At the time of her birth, her mother was working as a nurse, and did not become well-known as a singer along with her daughter Wynonna until the early 1980s. Judd's parents divorced in 1972, and in 1974, her mother took her back to her own native Kentucky, where Judd grew up. Judd's mother raised her Baptist, and she attended twelve schools before college including Franklin High School (Tennessee). She briefly tried modeling in Japan during school breaks. An alumna of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Kentucky, she majored in French and minored in anthropology, art history, theater, and women’s studies. She spent a semester studying in France as part of her major, a move that mirrored her role as Reed in the television series Sisters. She was in the UK Honors Program and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, but did not graduate with her class, leaving university early to drive cross-country in pursuit of an acting career in Hollywood, where she studied with well-respected acting teacher, Robert Carnegie, at Playhouse West. During this time, she worked as a waitress at "The Ivy" restaurant and lived in a Malibu, California house her sister bought her, which burned down during the great Malibu fires. On May 9, 2007, it was announced that Judd had completed her bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Kentucky. In a May 2007 appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Judd explained that she had completed her degree requirements in 1990, but had mistakenly thought she was one class short. She only needed to "sign a piece of paper" in order to graduate. Ellen then surprised Judd by presenting her with her diploma, which Degeneres had acquired from the university. Ashley Tyler Ciminella joined an older half-sister, Wynonna. When her parents divorced in 1972, Judd was shuttled between California, Kentucky and Tennessee, attending 12 schools in 13 years. A bookish child, she developed an early interest in performing and, goaded by her older sister, opted to try her luck in Hollywood after completing college. Working as a hostess at the popular restaurant The Ivy, Judd made industry connections and within a year, had begun to land stage and screen roles – most notably as Swoosie Kurtz's troubled daughter, Reed Halsey, on the NBC female-centric drama, "Sisters" (1991-96). Judd, however, found the small screen role frustrating and negotiated an early release from her contract. The ambitious beauty auditioned for the pivotal role of Christian Slater's girlfriend in the comedy "Kuffs" (1992), but as she told Movieline in 1997, she "thought they were boiling it down to a booby factor – choosing a pair of breasts." Her agent suggested she pass and accept instead the smaller role of a woman in a paint store. Knowing her mother would not approve of the onscreen nudity anyway, Judd took the smaller role and her career began to take shape from that point on. Judd began acting on television, and appeared as Ensign Robin Lefler, a Starfleet officer, in two 1991 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. From 1991 to 1994 she had a recurring role as Reed, the daughter of Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), on the NBC drama Sisters. She made her feature film debut in 1992's Kuffs, and had the starring role in 1993's independent film, Ruby in Paradise, for which she received good reviews. She also had a role in the 1994 Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers, but her scenes were cut from the version of the film released theatrically. She gained further critical acclaim for her roles in 1995's Smoke and Heat. She also played the role of Callie in Philip Ridley's dark, adult fairy-tale The Passion of Darkly Noon. After her award-winning and star-making turn as the Tennessee heiress who sets out across Florida to find herself in "Ruby in Paradise," Judd was cast as the sole survivor of a massacre who must describe in detail the traumatic event, in Oliver Stone's highly controversial film, "Natural Born Killers" (1994). Because her emoting was accompanied by graphic flashbacks, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) requested that director Stone cut the scene, deeming it too violent and disturbing. Thankfully, Stone would later restore it for the 1996 "director's cut" video release. Despite ending up on the cutting room floor, Judd continued to add to her gallery of supporting roles, including a dramatic turn as Harvey Keitel's junkie daughter in "Smoke" (1995), Val Kilmer's unfaithful wife in "Heat" (1995) and, bringing what she could to the underwritten part, a lawyer's spouse in the John Grisham-penned, "A Time to Kill" (1996). Faring better on the small screen, Judd displayed her intelligence and skill – as well as a considerable amount of flesh – as the younger incarnation of Marilyn Monroe in "Norma Jean and Marilyn," which brought her an Emmy nomination. Judd's Norma Jean more than held her own opposite Mira Sorvino's Marilyn, with the former's incandescent beauty believably representative of Hollywood's Golden Age. While Judd's next project, "Normal Life" (1996), was originally intended for theatrical release, it was relegated to HBO. Nevertheless, it contained her disturbing, impassioned portrayal of an unhinged woman who drives her caring husband to a life of crime in order to satisfy her acquisitive nature. The rather steamy sex scenes between Judd and Luke Perry, no doubt, gave Judd's mother pause. In her first Hollywood lead, Judd was cast as a capable doctor who, having escaped from a kidnapper, agrees to help the police track down the criminal in "Kiss the Girls" (1997). Again, her native intelligence and striking beauty were used to good effect, even if the surrounding efforts were not top-drawer. She had a particular onscreen chemistry with star Morgan Freeman, no stranger as the yin to someone else's yang in suspenseful crime thrillers. Next up, the actress exhibited her sexy side as the local girl who falls for a drifter in "The Locusts" (1997) and offered a memorable, if relatively brief, turn as a single mother in the sentimental period drama, "Simon Birch" (1998). Judd returned to thrillers as an innocent woman who, after serving time for murdering her abusive husband, discovers he is still alive in "Double Jeopardy" (1999), as well as playing bad again as a suspected serial killer tracked by Ewan McGregor in the disappointing "Eye of the Beholder" (2000). By the end of the 1990s, Judd had managed to achieve significant fame and success as a leading actress, after leading roles in several thrillers that performed well at the box office, including Kiss the Girls in 1997 and 1999's Double Jeopardy. Several of her early 2000s films, including 2001's Someone Like You and 2002's High Crimes, received only mixed reviews and moderate box office, In 2001, Judd decided to step outside the genre which, in a few brief years, she had become queen of – that being, suspense thrillers – by starring as a betrayed woman who becomes obsessed with studying male behavior in the romantic comedy feature, "Someone Like You." Despite starring opposite an equally gorgeous Hugh Jackman, the mismanaged film did not ignite any special box office sparks. That same year, following a two-year engagement, Judd married her boyfriend, Indy race driver, Dario Franchitti, and settled in to domesticity while splitting time between homes in his native Scotland and her beloved Tennessee. After her marriage, Judd's Hollywood output would drop radically, but between rooting for her beloved University of Kentucky sports teams, publicly supporting her sister's very public battles with addiction, and getting the word out for causes near to her heart like AIDS, Judd did manage to pop up in the occasional film projects. A return to form in the middlebrow thriller "High Crimes" (2002), reuniting her with her "Kiss the Girls" co-star Freeman, did little to advance her career, though she did provide some fire and flavor to the softer follow-up, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (2002). Playing the flashback version of Vivi, the highly strung Ellen Burstyn character, Judd's vibrant personality leaped off the screen. She was then cast in a small but crucial supporting role as Tina Modotti, lesbian lover of famed artist Frida Kahlo, in "Frida" (2002) – as a favor to Judd's longtime friend, the film's producer and star, Salma Hayek. although she did receive positive notices for her performance in the 2004 biography of Cole Porter, De-Lovely, opposite Kevin Kline. Judd's movie nude scenes, notably in "Norma Jean and Marilyn" and "A Normal Life" have drawn frequent criticism from her family's southern, conservative fan base. She is currently the magazine advertising "face" of American Beauty, an Estee Lauder cosmetic brand sold exclusively at Kohl's department stores, and H. Stern jewelers. In June 2007, American family clothing retailer Goody's, announced that they were going to be releasing three fashion clothing lines with Judd in the Fall to be called - AJ(TM), Love Ashley(TM) and Ashley Judd(TM). "I'm thrilled to be involved in a clothing line that provides simple, lovely solutions for women’s wardrobes," said Ashley Judd in a statement. "I've always loved items that you can throw on easily and know that you’ll feel and look good. This line does just that, while keeping with the best of current styles and trends". After a stint on Broadway in the role of Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and a never-realized flirtation with the role of "Catwoman" – thankfully later played campily by Halle Berry – Judd returned to the big screen in 2004 as Linda Lee Porter, the devoted wife and muse to the great American composer/songwriter Cole Porter (Kevin Kline) in the elegant and sophisticated biopic "De-Lovely." Receiving universal praise for her role as the pained wife of a homosexual, Judd reminded moviegoers what they had been missing since her reduced workload had taken effect. Despite a happy marriage and making her voice heard on behalf of various causes, Judd would stick her toe back in the showbiz pool intermittently, appearing in her buddy Joey Lauren Adams' directorial debut, "Come Early Morning" (2006), as Lucy, a 30-something Southern gal who searches for love; as well as in director William Friedkin's ode to horror, "Bug" (2007). During the 1990s, Judd dated baseball player Brady Anderson, singers Lyle Lovett and Michael Bolton, and actors Matthew McConaughey and Robert De Niro. She became engaged to Scottish CART, later IndyCar driver, and now NASCAR driver Dario Franchitti, in December 1999, and the two were married at Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, Scotland, on December 12, 2001. She and her husband divide their time between a home in Scotland and their farm outside Franklin, Tennessee. Judd can be easily be recognized in Gasoline Alley wearing a white hat, and was present at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 when her husband won. When in Manhattan, she attends services at a charismatic Missionary Baptist Church. Judd regularly attends University of Kentucky basketball games, frequently sitting next to Donna Smith (wife of former UK Coach Tubby Smith), or in the student section. Last year, she was a guest columnist for a local Kentucky newspaper, writing about the NCAA Championships. She is frequently sought out for celebrity camera shots during televised games. At the request of her cousin, she posed for a poster wearing only a hockey jersey for fundraising purposes for their alma mater's hockey team. She is also an avid practitioner of yoga, cooking and gardening. In February 2006, Judd entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas and stayed for 47 days. She was there because of personal issues, including depression and isolation. Judd is active in humanitarian and political causes. She was appointed Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, an education and prevention program of the international NGO Population Services International (PSI) promoting AIDS prevention and treatment, and speaks and demonstrates at pro-choice events. On October 29, 2006, Judd appeared at a "Women for Ford" event for Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. A long running feud between Judd and Indy race car driver Milka Duno took place throughout the 2007 IRL season. After the final race of the 2007 season the actress stated to the assembled news media that, "I know this is not very sportsmanlike, but they've got to get the 23 car (Duno) off the track. It's very dangerous. I'm tired of holding my tongue. She shouldn't be out there. When a car is 10 miles (an hour) off the pace, it's not appropriate to be racing. People's lives are at stake". |
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